Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre is set to announce his official retirement form mixed martial arts (MMA) during a special press conference to be held tomorrow (Thurs., Feb. 21, 2019) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
More on that here.
The bombshell prompted current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov to take to social media in order to plead with “Rush” to hold off on cashing his 401K until November so the two men can engage in fisticuffs inside the Octagon.
St-Pierre — who did express real interest in facing “The Eagle” in the past — told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani that those types of matchmaking decision aren’t ultimately up to the combatants themselves and vowed to spill the beans during his press conference.
Just spoke to GSP. He didn’t want to go into too much details. I asked about @TeamKhabib‘s message and he said: “I saw what Khabib wrote, and I appreciate it very much. Unfortunately, these decisions aren’t up to us. I will address everything at the press conference tomorrow.”
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 20, 2019
Just spoke to GSP. He didn’t want to go into too much details. I asked about
@TeamKhabib‘s message and he said: “I saw what Khabib wrote, and I appreciate it very much. Unfortunately, these decisions aren’t up to us. I will address everything at the press conference tomorrow.”
St-Pierre was looking to become UFC’s first-ever three division champion, but UFC president Dana White was over the French-Canadian’s “one off title fights,” especially after he left the promotion high and dry after defeating Michael Bisping for the 185-pound strap at UFC 217 back in late 2017.
As for Khabib, he may have two less lightweight contenders to worry about once he gets back into the swing of things.